• Entertainment
  • Finance
  • Marketing
  • Real Estate
  • Technology
  • Social
National Journal Community Of e-Experts
Finance 0

February 2018 Headline Business Sales Declined, Inventories Grew

By Kurt Osterberg · On April 16, 2018

Econintersect‘s analysis of final business sales data (retail plus wholesale plus manufacturing) shows a slowing in the rate of growth. Inventory levels are very high and do not correlate to times of economic expansion.

Analyst Opinion of Business Sales and Inventories

Inventories remain elevated this month. Our primary monitoring tool – the 3 month rolling averages for sales – significantly declined this month but remains in expansion. As the monthly data has significant variation, the 3 month averages are the way to view this series. Overall business sales are improving since the low point in 2015 – but the trend in the last 6 months has been declining.

Econintersect Analysis:

  • unadjusted sales rate of growth decelerated 1.9 % month-over-month, and up 6.0 % year-over-year
  • unadjusted sales (but inflation adjusted) up 3.2 % year-over-year
  • unadjusted sales three month rolling average compared to the rolling average 1 year ago decelerated 0.8 % month-over-month, and is up 6.1 % year-over-year.
  • unadjusted business inventories growth rate accelerated 0.4 % month-over-month (up 4.3 % year-over-year with the three month rolling averages showing inventory growth now growing), and the inventory-to-sales ratio is 1.50 which is elevated for this month in times of economic growth).
  • US Census Headlines:

  • seasonally adjusted sales down 0.2 % month-over-month, up 5.7 % year-over-year.
  • seasonally adjusted inventories were up 0.6 % month-over-month (up 3.7 % year-over-year), inventory-to-sales ratios were up from 1.37 one year ago – and are now 1.34.
  • market expectations (from Bloomberg / Econoday) were for inventory growth of 0.3 % to 0.7 % (consensus +0.6 %).
  • The way data is released, differences between the business releases pumped out by the U.S. Census Bureau are not easy to understand with a quick reading. The entire story does not come together until the Business Sales Report (this report) comes out. At this point, a coherent and complete business contribution to the economy can be understood.

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    Share Tweet

    Kurt Osterberg

    You Might Also Like

    • Finance

      Lack of Attention to This “Big Rock” in Your Business is Costing You

    • Finance

      SDGs in 2021: Where Do We Go From Here?

    • Finance

      How Microlearning Can be Used to Improve Employee Training Retention

    No Comments

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Top Finance

    • Chart: Amazon’s Dominance In Ecommerce Chart: Amazon’s Dominance In Ecommerce
    • Hedge Funds In The US Hedge Funds In The US
    • One Ring To Rule Them All One Ring To Rule Them All
    • Kanban vs Scrum: Understanding the Tools for Agile Success Kanban vs Scrum: Understanding the Tools for Agile Success
    • Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Review

    New Posts

    • Lack of Attention to This “Big Rock” in Your Business is Costing You

      Lack of Attention to This “Big Rock” in Your Business is Costing You

      February 25, 2021
    • SDGs in 2021: Where Do We Go From Here?

      SDGs in 2021: Where Do We Go From Here?

      February 25, 2021
    • How Microlearning Can be Used to Improve Employee Training Retention

      How Microlearning Can be Used to Improve Employee Training Retention

      February 25, 2021
    • Leaders: A Roadmap For Behavior Change

      Leaders: A Roadmap For Behavior Change

      February 25, 2021
    • 7 Modern Strategies to Make Remote Teams Work in 2021

      7 Modern Strategies to Make Remote Teams Work in 2021

      February 25, 2021
    • About
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy & Policy
    • Sitemap
    • Terms of use

    Copyright © 2018-2021 NJCEE. All Rights Reserved.